A MOULDED LUSTRE AND COBALT-BLUE POTTERY BORDER TILE, KASHAN CENTRAL PERSIA, 13TH CENTURY A MOULDED LUSTRE AND COBALT-BLUE POTTERY BORDER TILE, KASHAN CENTRAL PERSIA, 13TH CENTURY

A MOULDED LUSTRE AND COBALT-BLUE POTTERY BORDER TILE, KASHAN CENTRAL PERSIA, 13TH CENTURY

Reference: ART3004468

The main register with golden brown lustre ground with spiralling leafy vine and perching birds around a strong moulded cobalt-blue naskh inscription, raised borders below with a repeated design of scrolls within lustre lattice and above with repeated arabesques with small cobalt highlights containing split palmettes.
The inscriptions : Allah Rabbu ‘Aal " Allah Lord of the". This part of the verse appears 7 times in the Quran. and it most likely that the third missing word will be al-almeen-the worlds.
35 by 31 cm. The tile is restored.

CATALOGUE NOTE
This intact tile shows unusually well-controlled lustre designs, giving a precision to the drawing that is sometimes not as sharp as here, particularly on tiles that also include the colour turquoise. The register of modelling along the upper band is very similar to that of the tiles from the Khanqah of Pir Husayn south west of Baku in Azerbaijan which was rebuilt by Umar b. Muhammad al-Shirzadi of Qazvin in 684/1285 (Iran and the Hermitage, exhibition catalogue, in Russian, St. Petersburg, 2004, no.157, pp.136-7).